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A Bit of Irish History from Ancestry.com
Connacht Community History (Kathy's DNA profile shows the O'Malley family has roots in Connacht)
(Connacht Province is composed of Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim, Galway, and Roscommon counties in the west of Ireland)
Life was difficult for the Connacht Irish at the turn of the 19th century. As the population grew, land became scarce,
and families who couldn't afford their rent were evicted from their homes with little notice.
During the Great Potato Famine, many Connacht Irish died or fled home to escape poverty and starvation.
Many traveled to America's East Coast, settling in cities like New York and Boston, which became havens for these Irish immigrants.
1775–1800 - Hard Times Make Hardy Folks
For the majority, life in Connacht was hard. The land tended to be poor, and so did the people.
Many lived in traditional clachans, small clusters of houses surrounded by shared fields and grazing land,
a practice known as rundale farming. Most were Catholic and a majority spoke Irish. However, Catholic penal laws
passed by Ireland’s Protestant parliament meant that most Catholics couldn’t buy land, vote, or hold office,
and they had to pay tithes to the Church of Ireland—though many of the laws weren’t strictly enforced in Connacht.
1800–1825 - Digging in Their Heels
During the Napoleonic Wars the Irish economy boomed as the country supplied the British Army with food and supplies.
Ireland’s population was booming as well, but Connacht tenant farmers were facing evictions from landlords who wanted
to use their lands for grazing to cash in on higher beef prices during wartime. When the conflicts were over,
recession set in. Life in Connacht became even more difficult, but the people dug in their heels and stayed.
Some local men even formed secret “Ribbon Societies” to intimidate landlords and try to protect tenants from eviction.
1825–1850 - Life as a Tenant Farmer
Ireland’s growing population meant more people looking for land that was getting harder to find.
Absentee landlords owned large tracts of the Irish countryside, and middlemen regularly subdivided holdings
into smaller plots while increasing rents. Large families and their livestock often lived in single-room,
mud cabins with no windows or chimneys. Since any home improvements became the landlord’s property, and
farmers could be evicted with little notice, there was little incentive to upgrade dwellings.
1850–1875 - The Great Hunger
The Great Famine devastated Connacht: 30% of its residents either died or emigrated. Those who couldn’t support
themselves often entered the infamous workhouses—County Mayo alone had nine. Separated from family members,
given poor quality food that was barely enough to keep them alive, the destitute worked for their keep.
Men chopped wood and broke stones, while women washed clothes, spun wool, and took care of the ailing.
Those who survived the famine and had a little money headed to port cities on America's East Coast.
New York’s Five Points slum was more than 65% Irish by 1855, with a large number coming from County Sligo.
1875–1925 - Following Friends and Family
More crop failures, disease, and death in western Ireland sent immigrants to Australia and the United States.
Almost 40% of those who arrived in New York City were from Connacht’s five counties. People from Roscommon settled on
Mission Hill in Boston; those from Galway headed to Newton, Massachusetts; and folks from Mayo made their way to
Cleveland, eastern Pennsylvania, and Chicago. Family left behind in Ireland often said they couldn’t have lived
without the money being sent back from America.
1925–1950 -Shaping America’s Cities
Although early Irish immigrants faced prejudice because of their religious beliefs and fears over their clannish behavior,
Irish Americans had made their way into the mainstream. Their unity, growing numbers, and activism helped them gain
power in politics, the church, and the labor movement in major cities. Immigration from Connacht eventually slowed
as the United States imposed quotas in the 1920s, followed by the Great Depression and World War II. But after
generations of immigration and growth, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston remained solid Irish strongholds.
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Baltimore, Maryland